Perfection's Flaws
by VintageManniqueen
Summary: Series of drabbles. Glinda at different ages, primarily teen years.
1. Wish Upon A Snowflake

* * *

Glinda looked up into the night sky of Frotticca. She knew that somewhere in the distance, Elphaba was. Simply was. Existing. Living life. Hopefully, Glinda thought, she was safe and warm. She scooped a handful of snow, and she blew the crystalline flakes into what she hoped was the general direction of the Emerald City. The general direction of where she hoped Elphaba was. I love you, she thought, as each tiny flake carried her words into the night.

* * *

_For you, baby. All of my love to you._

_+ 1,000 sweet kisses_


	2. Unnatural

Young Galinda studied her reflection in the mirror. She touched her porcelain cheeks, her plump, rosy lips.

She stared into her own eyes, wondering how it could be that she, such a beautiful girl, could be so… abnormal.

She supposed unnatural tendencies were an exchange for unnatural beauty.


	3. Dissatisfaction

This is it. He is going to kiss her.

She wriggles with excitement.

And then-

His hands are on her waist and neck

and his lips are on hers

and his tongue is in her mouth.

And then-

she feels nothing.


	4. Numb

Galinda stomped into her bedroom. _"I hate life!"_

She stopped in front of her mirror.

You're so beautiful, she told herself bitterly.

She threw herself onto her bed angrily. Suddenly, tears came to her eyes. She didn't know why. But she cried and whimpered into her pillows until she could feel no longer.


	5. Help Me Out, Out of this Nightmare!

Galinda rested her chin in her hands, visibly slouching in class. They were everywhere. In front of her, behind her, to either side. They were making her insane. She shifted positions nervously. Why? She asked herself. Why? She asked whatever god was listening. She was brought out of her silent prayers when she heard her name said.

"Miss Galinda, would you care to join Miss Andalin and me for an intimate slumber party this evening?"

"Um…Yes. Yes. I would love to," she replied absently to the girl's breasts.


	6. There's a moment you know

Upon her 13th birthday, Galinda realized something.

She was miserable. And she was seething with anger about it, too.

She had to do something.

She turned about swiftly, scanning the room for something to throw.

No, that would be juvenile.

Instead, she thought of the worst word she could have ever possibly heard in her short, sheltered life. Face red and hands balled into fists,

she gave a leap of frustration.

"**FUCK!" **she shouted.

Promptly, she seated herself in bewilderment.

A bright grin broke out across her face.


	7. Haven't You Heard the Word of Your Body?

Galinda lay in bed next to one of her school friends. It was a Friday night, the one night of the week she attended slumber parties. She was so very near sleep-

Tildina slipped an arm about her waist.

Galinda liked this. It was warm, safe, comfortable... She cuddled closer. Her eyes closed and she was yet again on the verge of dreaming-

A soft hand was on her thigh, just beneath the slightly raised hem of her nightdress. Galinda tried to ignore it.

"I _know,"_ Tildina whispered, perfectly formed lips forming a sly grin.

Galinda could not ignore how badly she wanted to feel the hands move higher.


	8. Goodnight, My Someone

Galinda longed for someone to take care of her; to hold her, to kiss her, and love her. She wanted someone to hold their arms open and wrap them tightly around her through the dark of every night.

It wouldn't be at all difficult for Galinda to find someone. She was 17 and lovely; beautiful, even. She seemed perfection from the inside out. So many could, and likely did love her.

The problem though, was that Galinda's _someone_

was a woman.


	9. A Rose By Any Other Name

Galinda loved the smell of flowers. She loved the way they looked.

She especially loved poppies and roses.

She adored the color red.

Elphaba had first arrived at Shiz wearing a red dress.

And, Galinda noticed, she smelled faintly of poppies.


	10. You ARE Thinking!

Elphaba. Elphaba made her steaming mad.

The damned artichoke loved to ruffle her feathers.

_And what pretty feathers Galinda had! _

But always nagging. Always whining.

Always _talking._ And about what?! She never had any idea what the green bean went on about.

Galinda was thoroughly sick of it.

And perfectly horrified that something Elphaba had said had made perfect sense to her.


	11. Birds of a Feather

Elphaba was green.

Galinda was her roommate.

This just did _not _seem right. Why should she, Galinda Arduenna, have to room with someone so freakish? The girl was _green_! She was too tall and too thin- entirely too awkward. And those sharp features!

She was just so... Galinda considered her for a moment. _Exotic, _she decided. Potential for a strange beauty. She was _alluring. _

And Galinda realized, in the midst of her thoughts, _that she was a freak, too._


	12. Where the Sins Lie

Galinda was alone in the room. Elphaba would not be in for two more hours.

She lay in bed, unable to sleep, though she _was_ dreaming.

She dreamed sweet, _sweet _dreams.

She touched herself, gasping quietly as to not be heard by her sleeping Ama in the next room.

She was getting _so_ _close._

Her stomach muscles tightened...

She was so near- and she couldn't help but to moan:

"_Elphie_..."


	13. Artistic Vision

Glinda stared blankly in the direction of Dr. Dillamond.

She wanted to pay attention.

But in her mind, paintings were left unpainted, great works of art and literature undrawn and unwritten.

She had an urge to run from the lecture hall and into the town center, throwing herself at whatever fashion company would take her.

She wished to take to the walls of Crage Hall with a paint brush and every color paint in the rainbow.

But really, she wanted to escape the canvas of black in her mind.


	14. Every Death Begins a New Life

**(The night of Ama Clutch's funeral, for those who don't know)**

* * *

They all crammed into a booth in the Peach and Kidneys, laughing, shouting, making merry.

The giggling.

The drinking.

The saffron cream.

Glinda scooped some of it onto a spoon and put it to Ephaba's lips.

She had obtained obscene levels of courage from the obscene ammount of alcohol she had consumed.

She'd bit at Shenshen's finger playfully when the brunette had dipped a cream-covered digit into her mouth. She had daringly placed her own fingers at Fiyero's mouth, offering the treat.

But it was when a bit of the cream she had spooned to Elphie's lips remained uncaptured by the green girl's tongue that Glinda took a leap of faith (or perhaps a lapse in judgement)

and ran her own tongue over the desert on Elphie's upper lip.

She could feel the wetness pooling between her legs.


	15. In a Single Lumpy Bed

She loved the closeness of their bodies.

She and Elphaba had held each other close before, but she had never felt so much like she _needed _it.

Elphaba's arms were wrapped so tightly about her that she questioned her ability to breathe. She traced her nails gently up and down Elphaba's exposed forearm, causing the flesh to raise in tiny dots.

She had a feeling Elphaba knew. She had a feeling Elphaba wanted her, too.

Elphaba was always encouraging her to study.

She tested her theory by kissing the green girl right on the lips, romanticizing the action more than she had ever dared previously.

Glinda's theory was proven correct.


	16. Perfection

Once upon her childhood, Galinda dreamed of marrying a handsome business man with whom she would have two perfect children. Their wedding would have been perfect. Her dress would have have been grand and voluminous, made of the finest Gilikinese silk, and sparkling with pearl accents. She would have lived with her perfect husband and perfect children in their perfect mansion in the Pertha Hills.

But standing in the muck of the Emerald City streets, her cold little hand clutching Elphaba's, and her dress filthy and torn,

she couldn't imagine a happier Happily Ever After

unless Elphaba was forever her damsel in distess.


	17. Thank Goodness

The evening of her wedding day, Glinda danced and danced, whirled around by the hands of so many. The men tried to hold her too close, and the women barely squeezed her tiny hands (though they were the ones she wished to hold her.) She was happy and all was merry until the time she took to her wedding bed.

Chuffery unbuttoned his cuff links awkwardly, and Glinda brushed out her curls as slowly as possible. She was frightened. She did not want a man to touch her.

But as Chuffery lay down beside her, and attempted to kiss her, she and he caught each other's eyes.

"I-" she began. "I can't do-" she trailed off.

Chuffery breathed a sigh of relief. "Neither can I."


	18. Crope, dear!

After Elphaba had left, Glinda tended to keep to herself.

As much as she disliked and envied Nessarose, many a night came that she shared a bed with her, just to feel human warmth.

She allowed herself to be coddled by Shenshen on occaision, but never cared much for her.

It was not until she learned of Tibbet's death that she turned to Crope.

She had gone to the funeral, to extend her condolences and catch up with an old friend. But she found herself staying the week.

He had always known, he said, that she loved Elphaba.

Together, they latently mourned the loss of love.

And that day in the city with Fiyero-

She knew he knew where _she _was.

She would see _her_ again.


	19. Oh, the Sanctity of Sanity

**In Glinda's head drummed the monotonous ringing of the word "why."**

**Why had she been assigned Elphaba as a roomate?**

**Why had she ever decided to_ go_ to Shiz?**

**Why couldn't she have been like all the others?**

**Why had she fallen so for the Emerald Beauty?**

**Why did she think Elphaba to be beautiful at all?**

**As her aged mind wandered through wonder and she blundered through life (she had begun to lose her mind, you see) she asked herself not why she had not pursued Elphaba in college, nor why she had loved her at all, but why the woman, long dead and gone, still drove her to insanity in her old age.**


	20. Better to Have Loved?

"_I've always had rather a, preference for women," Glinda said easily, popping a grape into her pillow-lipped mouth, then another into Crope's. "I mean, I always knew my simple __**being **__was absurd. So it made sense."_

"_And didn't," threw Crope. _

"_And didn't. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't need to, I suppose."_

_Crope lifted his head from her lap. "We were always a bunch of odds and ends, weren't we?"_

_Glinda snorted in a manner of extremely unladylike sarcasm. "To put it gently." _

_From her hand, a folded and over-handled photograph fluttered unceremoniously to the floor, bearing the loopy script, "Everyone, Suicide Canal, Spring Fresher Year."_


	21. TickTock

She wanted to run. She wanted to run fast, very far.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was running _from, _if anything. She simply felt the need to do it.

The great clock in the hall seemed to be melting in nasty, sluggish dribbles down its front, like the sagging face of an old Quadling beggar woman.

Galinda paced about her bedroom in a state somewhere between paranoid fear and extreme frustration.

Time.

Time.

Time for _what?_

Was there ever time for anything? For anything to happen specifically? Did all occurrences have preordained times?

_Why isn't it happening yet?_

_What _was even supposed to happen!

_Something. She could feel it._

But she couldn't make _something _happen _there._

_There_, in the modestly pretentious, consiencious house upon the hill. _There_, in Gilikin. _There_, in her sheltered mind and her sheltered surroundings.

She huffed in a hot, itchy, completely disturbed sort of way. Was she running _out _of time?


End file.
